The Wallpaper* case

Wallpaper* now...

London based Wallpaper*,
founded by the genius Tyler Brûlé in 1996, was until 2007 a very good
magazine. Those who knew the magazine at that time can tell: it dealt
with architecture, interiors, packagings, typography ect...
Rather independent, even rather
sharp and maybe too niche, the magazine, bought by Time Inc. in 1997,
changed radically in 2007 with the appointment of Tony Chambers as the
editor in chief. From then on, the magazine developped and became a huge lifestyle brand (even selling city guides with Phaidon).

Wallpaper* before.

Now every issue is more about
advertisers than the content itself. Fashion spreads each month really
lack audacity -- and everything else in the magazine as well...Even
the ads in it are poorly executed (see the exasperating HTC campaign...
Design awards sponsored by HTC, HTC's new phone lauch party sponsored
by Wallpaper*, Wallpaper* twitting, and twitting, and twitting,"oh how we love our htc", huge double pages ad at the beginning of the magazine...)Hopefully Tyler Brûlé left to start afresh with thegreat Monocle magazine, which is by far more interesting now than Wallpaper*.Nowadays the only interesting magazines left are the italian ones -- such as
Abitare or Interni, even though owned by press groups-- which remind me of Wallpaper* at its beginning.